Roundup: NATO to offer comprehensive, tailored support to Ukraine: NATO chief
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E-mail Xinhua, September 5, 2014
NATO-Ukraine Commission Thursday issued a joint statement during the ongoing NATO summit in Newport, southeast Wales of Britain, stressing they will stand united and offer Ukraine "a comprehensive and tailored" assistance.
The statement said they urge Russia "to stop violate Ukraine and the military intervention in Ukraine, as well as not to provide weapons to militants in eastern Ukraine."
"We call on Russia to reverse its self-declared 'annexation' of Crimea, which we do not and will not recognise," it said.
It called on Russia to hold dialogue with the Ukrainian authorities to calm down the crisis in Ukraine.
"We expect that the upcoming elections to the Verkhovna Rada in October of this year, as an important element of the Ukrainian Peace Plan, would contribute to this end," the statement said.
It said the Allies also welcome actions from other international organizations or individual Allies solve the crisis in Ukraine.
As Ukraine intends to deepen "distinctive partnership" with NATO, the military bloc has strengthened existing programs on defence education, professional development, security sector governance, and security-related scientific cooperation with Ukraine.
NATO will strengthen cooperation in the framework of the Annual National Program in the defence and security sector through capability development and sustainable capacity building programs for Ukraine.
Supports mentioned in the statement also include building up substantial new programs with a focus on command, control and communications, logistics and standardisation, cyber defence, military career transition, and strategic communications, supplying assistance to rehabilitate injured military personnel, reinforcing the advisory presence at the NATO office in Kiev.
"NATO and Ukraine will continue to promote the development of greater interoperability between Ukrainian and NATO forces, including through continued regular Ukrainian participation in NATO exercises," it stated.
The statement added Allies welcome Ukraine's joining in the Partnership Interoperability Initiative and expect Ukraine will further participate in the Enhanced Opportunities Program within the Initiative.
It said an independent, sovereign and stable Ukraine, firmly committed to democracy and the rule of law, is key to Euro-Atlantic security.
The various kinds of assistance is amount to about 15 million euros (about 19.42 million U.S. dollars).
"Ukraine has stood by NATO. Now in these difficult times, NATO stands by Ukraine," NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at the meeting with NATO leaders and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko before the joint statement.
He urged that Russia must stop "aggressive actions" against Ukraine, withdraw troops from Ukraine and the border regions, and called on Russia to stop its action of "annexing" Crimea.
"We had opened a very substantial discussion on NATO-Ukraine Commission Summit today. ... It is definitely a landmark event, and the highest level during the 20 year history of the partnership between Ukraine and NATO," said Poroshenko at the joint press conference with Rasmussen on Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Russia hopes authorities of Kiev to show goodwill for President Vladimir Putin's plan on the settlement of conflict in Ukraine, said Valentina Matviyenko, chairwoman of the upper house of Russian parliament Thursday.
"All depends on Kiev's goodwill which we hope will be shown. Russia is ready to do its best to ensure peace in the long-suffering southeastern regions of Ukraine," Matviyenko said.
Putin proposed a seven-point plan Wednesday to stop military clashes in southeastern Ukraine after a phone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko.
Poroshenko reportedly had agreed on the broad outlines of the seven-point peace settlement that would temporarily freeze the conflict on the ground.
Representatives from Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are scheduled to hold talks in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, Friday in search of political ways out of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Endit
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